Falling Too Fast To Save
by marshmallowhobo
Summary: Quinn Fabray was sent to Earth as a teenager, to escape the destruction of her home planet, Krypton. Supergirl/Glee Crossover.
1. Chapter 1

Rachel was running. Ever thankful for the vocal techniques that she practiced every night before bed that had given her capacious lungs, Rachel Berry was running fast. Her feet pounded the sidewalk with every stride, leaving only a dull thud echoing behind to alert the stampeding assailant of the direction in which she had turned.

She didn't know how she had gotten herself into this situation. She had left the studio after her weekly vocal training, and innocently walked towards her car. As she fumbled for the keys in her bag, she had noticed a burly man approaching. Suddenly, her sixth sense had kicked in. Narrowing her eyes at the robust shadowed figure she just knew trouble was imminent. Of course, it helped that when a slight breeze blew past his long jacket had opened slightly, revealing a gun shoved into his waistband and glimmering by the moon's light.

She took off running immediately, dropping her open purse on the ground beside her car and hoping that he had simply intended to mug her and thus would not give chase. Unfortunately for Rachel, that was not the case. As soon as she had began sprinting down the deserted streets she heard the man groan in protest and start jogging after her. She risked a glance over her shoulder every few yards, nearly careening into a broken streetlight, noticing how her soon-to-be attacker was gaining ground quickly.

She cursed her small stature under her breath, from what she could see of the man, he had at least a foot on her and her shorter legs were making that adamantly clear. She turned the corner onto the next street, hoping that there would be somebody around to help her. But it was past 11pm and this was Lima's shopping district and so it was just her and the heavy breathing, pit-bull of a man at her heels on yet another vacant street.

She looked around frantically, eyes searching every darkened store that she passed for some sign of movement. The next thing she knew, she was flying. There was a sharp pain in her lower extremities and the ground was moving towards her face at an alarming pace. When she connected with the ground she cried out in pain, mumbling obscenities at the overturned trashcan that had caused her to fall.

The man slowed his pace to a casual walk, adjusting himself through his pants as he neared her. She winced in pain as she tried to crawl away from him. She had attempted to break her fall with her hands and now they were red and bloody, and her right wrist was tingly and limp. She was at the entrance to an alley and thought that perhaps she could find a shadow to hide in. She pulled herself along the ground, ignoring the tears that fell freely from her cheeks and mixed together with the steady trail of blood she was leaving behind on the concrete.

Rachel cowered behind a dumpster, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her head atop of her blood stained knee socks. She took in a large gulp of air and then held her breath, desperate not to inform the man of her hiding place. She could hear him getting closer, rummaging through the garbage that had gathered over time in the dark.

"Come out little girl," he called, his voice menacingly seductive.

Rachel heard him running, what she assumed to be the barrel of the gun, along the width of the dumpster. She clamped a hand over her mouth to silence the sob that threatened to spill from her lips and searched for an escape. To her right there was a chain link fence that partitioned the alley, she would ever have to climb that and run some more or attempt to defend herself against the intruder. One look at her wounded legs and Rachel knew that she would not be able to make it over the fence.

"Found you!" The man exclaimed, opening the lid of the dumpster forcefully. He growled when he realised that it was empty, letting the heavy steel fall with a loud bang. "You better come out, little girl. You're just gonna make this worse for yourself."

Rachel knew that he was close; she could smell the alcohol on his breath permeating the air. She began to steady herself, reading to throw her weight into his stomach or legs when he eventually found her. She thought that if she could just tackle him to the ground, that she could either flee or somehow overpower him.

Suddenly, he was in front of her. His grinning face filling her vision and gun aimed directly at her head. He was crouched down before her, his knees touching hers and that contact alone was enough to make Rachel try to squirm away. She couldn't go anywhere, behind her there was nothing but a brick wall and she didn't have the energy to get up and run. Her plan to take him down had disappeared as soon as she saw the gun. He was drunk, that much was clear, but Rachel doubted he'd miss the shot considering the muzzle was already an inch away from pressing against her temple.

She was trapped, and he was smiling lasciviously at her. She felt her heart stop when he steadied the gun against her head, and then began to unbutton his pants with his free hand.

"I just wanted to talk, sugar." He ran the tip of the gun across her forehead, "but now I have all this... adrenaline." She gasped as she watched his hand disappear into the crotch of his jeans, "you really shouldn't have made me chase you."

She closed her eyes tightly as he leaned closer towards her, willing her mind to shut down and to brace herself for what was about to happen. But nothing did, not to Rachel anyhow. Something akin to a thunderclap sounded, and Rachel opened her eyes just in time to see the man go flailing backwards into the wall across the other side of the alley. His back connected with the bricks before his body sagged to the ground.

Rachel was confused; surely her sixth sense couldn't be that powerful yet. She hadn't even been able to read the thoughts of her neighbour's cat, let alone send a 180 pound man sailing through the air with just a frightened twitch of her forehead. Nevertheless, he seemed unconscious, and Rachel was pleased with herself.

"Just wait until I inform the glee club of this," she muttered. "There is absolutely no chance that Kurt will be able to doubt the authenticity of my abilities now." She kicked the gun away from where it had fell by her feet, noting that there was a small stream of smoke filtering out of the barrel. She turned to the left, gasping and scrambling away from the bullet hole left behind in the mortar, no more than a few centimetres from where her head had previously been.

She heard the man stirring, forcing her to sit back down, riveted to the ground in shock. There was a blur of red, and the man again went scrambling through the air until his chest was forced against the fence by somebody wearing... a cape? Rachel rubbed at her eyes, clearly she was hallucinating from a head trauma that she couldn't remember obtaining. When she removed her palms from her eyes, the man was on his knees and her mysterious hero was nowhere to be seen. The man grabbed for the forgotten gun, turning and pointing it directly at Rachel.

Rachel screamed, both at the sound of six rounds being fired and the incomprehensible shock of that same red blur she had seen earlier. This time, whatever it was stopped in front of her, and Rachel's eyes widened as she took in the figure of a woman. The floor length, red flowing cape was baffling enough but Rachel couldn't take her eyes away from what she could see of the mysterious woman's legs. Granted, she could only see a mere glimpse of the left side of the woman's body from her vantage point, but it was enough to distinguish the fact that this caped... lunatic was wearing a navy blue skirt of an indecent length, riding low on her hips. And the boots, Rachel had to resist the urge to reach out and touch them. They were a dark red, hemmed with a dull yellow which stopped just below her knees.

It was when a muscle in the woman's thigh quivered that Rachel remembered that there was a psychopath in the alley with her, firing off what seemed to be an endless stream of bullets at another possible psychopath. She was half aware of the fact that the strange woman standing in front of her, protecting her, probably should have been dead by now. But Rachel decided that if she was already hallucinating caped crusaders that could move at the speed of light, she may as well just go with it. Thus she barely blinked when she noticed how the woman didn't flinch, though she could see that the bullets were making contact with her body. Rachel rolled her eyes as she watched one literally bounce off of the woman's outer arm, hitting the ground and resting by her foot. She picked it up, juggling it between her palms a few times whilst waiting for it to cool. The tip of the bullet had been flattened, its edges folding down and spilling over. It had definitely hit something hard, but Rachel couldn't understand how it hadn't ripped right through the supple flesh of the woman casually standing in front of her.

"At least now I understand why people enjoy being high," Rachel mumbled. She pocketed the bullet, a test that she would conduct on herself. If the bullet remained in her pocket when she awoke the next morning, she clearly wasn't as insane as she was feeling now. When she looked back up, the woman was gone. The man who had attempted to attack her was unconscious on the ground, his gun somehow twisted into an unnatural arc at his side.

Rachel stumbled to her feet; eager to thank whoever it was that had saved her life. She stepped out from behind the dumpster just as her hero was walking away towards the entrance to the alley. "Wait!" She called enthusiastically, ignoring the shooting pain in her legs.

The woman stopped, turning around so that Rachel could just make out what she was wearing. Her face was encompassed by the shadow from the neighbouring building, but the brunette was able to see the red "S" emblazoned on the short, but long sleeved navy blue top she was wearing. Her eyes unconsciously traced over the woman's bare stomach, dampening her lips at the sight of perfectly toned abs. The woman turned away again and Rachel stepped forward, "who are you?"

The woman hesitated, her back turned to Rachel and hands on her hips. Rachel stopped and studied the beautiful blonde hair that was now glowing under the moonlight, swaying in time with the elegant dark red cape.

"A friend," came the whispered reply. Rachel took another tiny step forward, but was cemented in shock when the blonde raised one arm above her head and gracefully flew away. Up into the night sky, becoming that same red and blue blur which had defended her in the alley.

"Holy fucking Streisand," Rachel muttered. And then promptly passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

When Rachel awoke the next morning, the first thing she became aware of was the sound of people chattering. She slowly opened her eyes and squinted as the overly bright light of the room antagonized her growing headache. There were three nurses standing at the end of her bed, reading over a chart and giggling amongst themselves.

"Oh honey, you're awake," nurse number one said brightly. Rachel watched as the tall blonde woman whispered something to her two colleagues before dismissing them from the area and pulling the curtains closed. "You were pretty out of it last night."

"How did I get here?" Rachel asked quietly. She shuffled her body so that she was able to sit up fully, noticing the cast on her wrist. "The last thing I remember was... passing out in an alley."

"Well, that's just it sweetie," the nurse leant forward as if to whisper a secret. "We're not exactly sure just how you got here. Nurse Jackie says that she turned around for just a second, and poof! There you were, lying on the gurney she had been pushing down to the pharmacy."

Rachel rose a perfectly sculpted eyebrow disbelieving, "so you're telling me that I," she pointed at her chest with her hand that was not in a cast. "With my possibly broken legs..."

The nurse cut her off, "they're not broken, just a few abrasions and lacerations here and there..."

"Well I didn't know that when I was attempting to ditch a crazed lunatic last night. Even so, you think that I just walked all the way from where I fainted, to here? Without any recollection of doing so?"

"What other explanation is there?" The nurse asked incredulously. "Now, your chart says that your blood alcohol level was negative, as was your tox screen. So, if you'd like to explain what happened to you last night, miss?"

Rachel blinked. She was uncertain of the events that had transpired once she had tried to find solace behind the dumpster. She scratched her fingernails through her hair lightly and asked the nurse "were there any evidence of a brain contusion?"

The blonde shook her head no. "You don't remember? Perhaps I should page our resident OB to come take a look at you, I'll be right –"

"No!" Rachel exclaimed, she winced at the sound of her own voice and quietly muttered, "If you would be so kind as to pass me my jacket?"

The nurse looked hesitant but reached out for the jacket that was slung haphazardly over the back of a chair by the side of the bed. She handed it to Rachel and then stood with her arms crossed expectantly. The brunette took a deep breath, sliding her fingertips into the pocket and feeling around. Her eyes widened in shock as her hand closed around the tiny convoluted bullet that she had been sure wouldn't exist under the harsh light of day.

"I've got to get out of here."

...............Meanwhile................

Quinn Fabray hated her life. Sure, she had a purpose, and protecting all of mankind was a pretty big deal. But sometimes she feared that she may be swallowed by the lies she was required to tell. Sometimes she wished she was just another girl, a human girl.

Quinn's first memories of Earth were still vivid in her mind, she was certain that she would never forget the day she had woken up after 29 years in suspended animation. She had been sent to inhabit this planet by her Uncle Jor-El, when a raging war threatened to destroy her home planet of Krypton. Her duty was to protect Jor-El's infant Son Kal-El, who's ship had already left Krypton's atmosphere at the first sign of danger. Kal-El was to be Earth's saviour; her uncle had informed her that under the Earth's yellow sun a Kryptonian would manifest great powers. Powers to be used only for protecting civilisation.

However, though Quinn's ship had departed only minutes after the baby Kal-El's, it was caught in the solar explosion of Krypton. The alien spacecraft had been encased in debris from her planet, transforming into a Kryptonite asteroid and turning a journey that should have taken minutes, into years.

When she crashed to Earth in the midst of a meteor shower, she had awoken in a small town called Smallville. It had taken her a while to find Kal-El, but when she did she discovered that he had already grown and was almost thirty years old. He was going by the name of Clark Kent and had already built a life for himself. She had felt useless, without purpose. On this planet she was younger than him, a fact that he refused to let her forget and totally screwed with her mind. Here she was thirteen, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do now that Kal-El did not need her protection.

He assured her that she was needed, debriefing her of the knowledge she had retained of their home planet. He taught her to control her abilities; it was a necessity after she had nearly reduced his family's barn to ashes with a fire she had ignited, just by glaring at it after Clark had scolded her for using her powers to rob the local bank for coffee money. The thing that she had most trouble ignoring was the noise; it seemed as if she could hear everything that was happening on this ridiculously small planet. She couldn't sleep at first, the sound of a car screeching its brakes, or an infuriating little Chihuahua's yapping keeping her awake though they were miles away. He had taught her to fly after she woke from a dream of floating above the clouds, only to realise that was in fact floating, not through clouds but it had been her head connecting with the ceiling that had woke her in the first place.

They had spent hours together in a place that he called The Fortress of Solitude, the only remaining evidence of Kryptonian architecture. Though he now lived in a city called Metropolis, Clark often spent time in the crystalline building in the Artic, it housed all of the Kryptonian artifacts he had recovered from his years on Earth, a virtual link to the memory of his parents and a portal to The Phantom Zone; a dimension which held imprisoned alien criminals.

He had taught her the importance of creating an identity, one that would allow her to safely live amongst the humans. He tested her, made sure that she would not reveal her heritage under any circumstance. It was Kal-El that had given her the name Quinn, stating that she could no longer be known by her birth given name of Kara Zor-El. She had been hesitant, the Earth name sounding foreign on her own tongue for most of the months she had spent in his company. But after the intense training for humanity he had put her through, she started to feel as if the name was truly her own.

One day he had approached her whilst she was reading a book; she found Earth literature to be fascinating, but far too short in length as she could absorb every word with one flick through its pages. He had held up an outfit, and she had shaken her head vehemently in protest. She had accompanied Clark on patrol for a few nights, sleuthing through back alleys and soaring above the buildings. Sure, every night they protected people, saved them from violent robberies and brutal murders. But Quinn had witnessed Superman, as he was known by the humans, in all his reinforced latex glory and she refused to embarrass herself by dressing the same way.

The first outfit had been little more than a latex body sock; Quinn had demonstrated the control she had over her heat vision by making quick work of making it disappear. Clark was displeased, but every night he brought her another outfit, the same navy blue, red and yellow as his own but different in design to the one she had melted the day before. He told her that the world needed an icon, someone that could be easily recognized for the good they were doing. He told her that she should be proud to wear something with the family seal emblazoned on its chest, that she would make her Father Zor-El, and the rest of their Kryptonian legacy proud. In the end she had gotten bored of his voice, for someone who had been coined The Man of Steel, he sure did whine a lot.

A few weeks before her fourteenth birthday, Clark sat her down and told her it would be best if she left Metropolis. She had been devastated, feeling as though she had lost the one remaining place she belonged. He told her that it was no longer safe for her to stay with him, that although she was strong, she was still just a teenage girl. He said that Lex Luthor, his arch nemesis, was aware that she was Superman's cousin, and that he would not stop hunting her until she was dead. He assured her that he did not want her to leave, but that it was for her own protection.

The same night he handed her a copy of some papers, a fraudulent birth certificate and other forms of ID. He told her that a contact he knew had set up her adoption to a family in Ohio; the Fabrays. He said that she deserved to have a normal childhood, that of a human and that both her costume and her destiny would await her in The Fortress of Solitude once she was old enough to fully harness their power.

After arriving in Lima, Ohio, Quinn was quickly enrolled into high school and began her life as the all American girl. She didn't particularly enjoy living with the Fabrays, they were cold and strict. She missed Kal-El terribly, eager to get back to him and her purpose. But as time passed she started to forget where she came from, instead focusing on where she was. She created the exterior of an everyday high school student, trying to blend in as much was possible without being completely invisible.

The last warning Clark had given her before she had left, was that she could never reveal her true identity to anyone if she wanted to ensure their safety. That there were villains in this world, both human and alien alike, intent on eradicating any peace and justice in the world. Quinn had lived by that rule every day she had spent with Russel and Judy Fabray. That is, until she saw her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Thank you so much for the reviews, this story was born from a manipulation I made of Dianna Agron as Supergirl. You can see that manip on livejournal, my username is the same :D

Quinn had been surreptitiously watching Rachel Berry since the first day of freshman year. On that day, she had entered the school building, overrun with chaotic students attempting to familiarize themselves with new class schedules and immediately felt her breath catch in her throat. There, standing at the end of the hallway, looking diminutive and uncomfortable with the surrounding pandemonium was the most beautiful person Quinn had ever seen in her short time on Earth, and in the years she had spent on Krypton.

She had gravitated towards the girl, ear canals filtering all sounds except those of the mysterious brunette's quiet breathing and the pounding of her own heartbeat. As the distance between the two shortened, Quinn had to pause to check that she was walking at a regular, human pace. It seemed as if she had been subconsciously travelling at super-speed, the girl in her sights moving in torturous, glorious slow motion when her tossing her hair over a shoulder before steeling herself to enter the mass of students. She had glanced around at the people passing by, noting how they were interacting with each other at regular speed and continued approaching the girl who was now placing a ridiculous amount of stationary into her locker.

As she moved closer, Rachel began singing quietly under her breath and Quinn felt the force of the sound harder than the explosion of her birth planet that had sent her ship hurtling towards Earth. She had been rooted to the spot, unable to take another step as Rachel unknowingly wove her way ever deeper into the blonde's soul. She watched the short brunette close her locker and wander off down the halls before she could refocus her senses, the heavenly voice audible to her ears long after she had left Quinn's vision.

Quinn had let out the breath she was unaware she had been holding, emitting a strong frosty gust of wind that carried down the hallway and forced teenagers to lose their balance and shiver. They had all looked in her direction, but she was already gone, using the moment of their distraction to super-speed out to the football field where she could regain control of her powers. Everyone looked quizzically at the open doors of the building, clueless as to where the breeze had come from considering the warm, sunny weather outside.

She had watched Rachel from that day onwards, too afraid of revealing herself to strike up a conversation with the brunette, but always keeping her close. One day she was strolling towards the cafeteria with the two girls she had allowed herself to befriend. One, a fiery Latina who was far too self-absorbed to be able to figure out her true identity, and the other, a clueless blonde who honestly had no chance in Hell of noticing anything out of the ordinary. As soon as she entered the large room, she was fully aware of Rachel. She could sense her; hear her, all around and inside. When she watched one of the hockey players throw an iced drink into the face of the girl she secretly desired, it had taken every drop of self control not to transform into the faceless blur, drag the Neanderthal out of the school and fly him beyond the Earth's atmosphere, leaving him to suffocate somewhere past Mars.

Instead, she waited after school until the ape – Karofsky, nonchalantly stopped on his way to the locker room after practice for a drink from the water fountain. The halls were deserted so Quinn, from her hiding place behind some lockers, had blown out a large breath. The water spouting from the fountain and pooling in Karofsky's mouth became frozen, the unit itself encompassed by ice. Karofsky's eyes widened and he tried to call for help, both his tongue and his hands icily glued and unmoving.

Rumours of the strange occurrence rotated around McKinley High, but as nobody had witnessed Karofsky's peril before he eventually thawed out, no one believed them.

The second time Dave Karofsky slushied Rachel Berry, Quinn had stocked his locker full of pornography before using her heat vision to weld it shut. The school janitor was baffled when asked how such a strange thing could happen, and soon the whole thing was forgotten. She knew that high school bullying was not a just cause for using her superpowers, but she couldn't help herself. She wanted, needed, to protect Rachel Berry at all costs. The third time Karofsky felt her wrath, Quinn wasn't so subtle. They were in the middle of a biology class, listening to the teacher drone on whilst placing slides under a microscopic projector. Quinn wasn't hearing any of it, already reading through all of the semester's textbooks in five minutes and harbouring all the knowledge she would require. Instead she was paying careful attention to every word Dave was muttering to Rachel, his hesitant lab partner, under his breath. When the hockey player started insulting Rachel's two fathers, and Quinn literally heard Rachel's throat tighten in an attempt not to cry, she had lost it. She glared hard at the boy who was sat at a station two ahead of her and to the left, feeling the intensity of loathing behind her own eyelids. Before she could stop it, she felt heat bursting from her pupils. She barely managed to direct her gaze to the vinyl screen at the front of the room, cringing as it started to burn from the middle outwards. She had closed her eyes tightly, hoping that nobody could see that she was the source of the fire. As everyone was ushered out of the class so that the fire could be extinguished, Quinn was thankful that the teacher blamed the antique projector, but she knew that she had a problem.

Rachel was dangerous. She caused her to lose control of her abilities, and every time she was close to the other girl Kal-El's voice would echo throughout her brain. She would ignore the mental lecture reminding her of the importance of keeping people at arm's length for their own safety, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to deny. She needed to stay under the radar; she needed Rachel to be safe. After almost a year of silence between the two, Rachel accidentally knocked into Quinn in the hall. Quinn immediately steadied the shorter girl with her hands on her shoulder to stop her from falling backwards. People tended to collapse as if they'd just walked full force into a brick wall when colliding with Quinn. The blonde swallowed the painful guilt bubbling inside of her as Rachel looked at her with those gorgeous soulful brown eyes and harshly snapped "watch where you're going, Hatchet Face."

Rachel made her sloppy. She made her want to expose herself and forget the ramifications such a choice would cause. So from then on, Quinn antagonized the brunette whenever their paths crossed, willing her heart to believe that the feelings of attraction were feelings of hatred instead.

It had worked for a while; Quinn threw herself into the task of learning as much about Earth as she could from the education she was receiving. She was approached by the cheerleading coach and eventually joined the squad, she made friends, and she even got a boyfriend to distract her from her thoughts of Rachel Berry. It had all been enough, until it wasn't. One day, in sophomore year, Quinn had been forced to join the glee club in order to stop her boyfriend's loyalty from straying. She didn't love him particularly, but she was finally comfortable with her human life and he was an integral part of it.

The first practice, she had been overloaded with everything Rachel. Being in such a small room with the other girl, it was impossible to ignore her. And when Rachel sang, Quinn had to grip the underside of her chair and concentrate on not floating away. She knew that she should quit the club, but it was too late, she was already hooked. Shortly after that, she had broken up with her boyfriend Finn and she and Rachel had been awkwardly dancing around in each other's presence ever since. Being close to Rachel, but never having any direct interaction drove Quinn insane. In junior year she had needed a release. She escaped her Earth parent's home in the middle of the night and flew to The Fortress of Solitude, deciding that it was time to accept her destiny.

After a grueling practice spent with Rachel, who she had quickly discovered could sometimes be as annoying as she was beautiful, Quinn would change into the costume given to her by Kal-El and patrol the darkened streets of Lima. It was a small town, so she wasn't needed very often, but she had reunited a few random cats to their owners and that had seemed enough for now. Mostly she just flew, exploring the clouds and watching the stars. She felt lonely on Earth, she had tried to contact Kal-El, but he was always out of town investigating a story with his fiancée, Lois Lane.

When senior year was scheduled to start, Quinn was adept at separating Quinn Fabray from Supergirl, a name she had thought fitting due to her family connections. Cosmic Kid just sounded too Nickelodeon, and Kryptonian Conqueror didn't scream superhero. She was now seventeen years old, she was far more powerful than she could have ever imagined, and she was finally fulfilling her destiny.

She had trained herself to quieten the world, to no longer hear anything that she wasn't consciously listening for, except when patrolling. But no matter how hard she tried, she could never tune out Rachel's voice. She would lie in bed at night, listening to the girl across town, warming up her voice before delivering a passionate performance of a song. A song that Quinn would then listen to over and over on Rachel's Myspace page the day after so that she could revel in the girl's beauty. She had learned to give Rachel her privacy though, it had been tough and had taken weeks of diligent practice, but after one occasion where Quinn was just dozing off to sleep only to be woken by low, breathy sounds unfamiliar to her ears, she had deemed it necessary to sometimes shut Rachel out.

It was her inability to completely ignore Rachel that had set the events of that fateful night in motion. She had been lying on Brittany's bed at the blonde's house, gossiping idly with her and Santana when she heard it. The distinct voice of Rachel Berry, only she wasn't singing, she was screaming for help. Quinn had haphazardly climbed off of the bed, hating herself for needing to put on a clumsy show for her two friends. She made some excuse about needing to go home and clenched her jaw, forcing herself to take regular human strides until she was out of the room. She could hear Rachel crying and it was killing her. She paused outside of the house and turned her head slightly to the side, distinguishing from which direction the cries were coming from. When she knew which way to turn, she soared up into the sky, not caring in that moment if anyone saw her. She made it to her house in less than a second, changing her clothes in the blink of an eye.

When she arrived at the alley, her heart broke on noticing Rachel wounded and terrified behind a dumpster. She concentrated her gaze, using her X-Ray vision to discover that Rachel's wrist was broken. Apart from scrapes and bruises that was the extent of the damage, at least physically. Her rage at seeing Rachel hurt had blinded her, she was more violent with the man intent on attacking the girl than she usually would have been. When the man had pulled a gun she had acted on impulse, standing in front of the girl she was so sure she loved. It was the first time she realised that her skin was impenetrable to bullets, and she hoped the brunette wasn't aware of how they ricocheted off of body.

When he was no longer a threat, she had intended to leave knowing that Rachel was safe. But the girl's voice had once again caused her to freeze in place. When asked so quietly who she was, the answer was on the tip of her tongue. Instead, she tried to disguise her voice as much as possible and whispered that she was a friend. Rachel wasn't supposed to see her, Quinn hadn't been thinking clearly, and so she flew away, hoping that Rachel wouldn't remember the encounter in the morning.

About a mile away, she heard Rachel mumble, "Holy fucking Streisand" and she couldn't help but chuckle. Only Rachel Berry would replace a God that Quinn didn't even believe in with a seasoned Broadway veteran. Her laughter died however when she heard the all too familiar sound of a body hitting concrete. She sighed and soared back to the disgusting alley.

Rachel was lying on the ground unconscious. For the first time, Quinn was able to study the girl closely. She was breathtaking, the urge to press her lips against Rachel's was almost too much to resist, but the blonde knew it would be wrong. She didn't know what it was about Rachel Berry, she just felt an inconceivable pull towards the girl. As she cradled Rachel gently in her arms and flew up into the night sky, the loneliness she had felt since arriving in Lima abating, she wondered if it would be such a disaster to just get to know the girl she was holding.


	4. Chapter 4

Rachel had to take the bus from the hospital back to her house; luckily she had found a crumpled $10 bill in the pocket of her jacket. For the entirety of the journey her fist never uncurled to release the bullet in her grasp. She feared losing it, the one affirmation that the events of the previous night had been real.

As soon as she had crossed the threshold into her house, she had almost been pushed back out by the force of her fathers' hugs. "Honey, where were you?" The shorter man, Eli asked hurriedly.

"We were so worried when you didn't come home last night; we looked everywhere that we could think of. Where were you, Rachel?" Her other father, Joshua gently pulled back from the almost bone crushing group hug to look at Rachel expectantly.

Rachel raised her right arm, successfully pulling both men's focus to the white fibreglass cast encasing her wrist from her elbow to mid–palm. "I was at the hospital," when seeing how both of her father's mouths opened, no doubt readying to let loose an influx of questions, she quickly continued. "I'm fine though, I promise. No head trauma, just a few minor lacerations and a broken wrist."

"But what happened to you?" Eli asked, his warm chocolate brown eyes widening with worry.

Rachel was about to answer her dad when the sound of somebody clearing their throat interrupted her. Only then had she realised that they had company.

"Oh, yes sorry," Joshua mumbled sheepishly. "Sweetie, this police officer would like to ask you some questions if you're feeling up to it?"

"I'm fine daddy," Rachel whispered and approached the young man who was now standing uncomfortably in front of the couch. He looked as if had barely turned twenty, dressed in a neatly pressed navy blue suit and crisp white shirt. He took hold of his left lapel and pulled his jacket open slightly to retrieve a wallet from an inner pocket.

"Rachel, I'm Detective Nicholas Gage," he let the wallet fall open to reveal his credentials. "I've been assigned to your case due to its suspicious nature."

Rachel once again held tight to the bullet, and asked as nonchalantly as possible "suspicious?"

"Why don't you take a seat?" He smiled warmly at her and Rachel felt some of the hesitance leave her body. She gingerly sat down on the couch, turning to give the detective her full attention. Eli sat down on the chair opposite the two whilst Joshua excused himself to retrieve refreshments from the kitchen.

"Tell me Rachel, what do you remember about last night?" Detective Gage took out a small worn notebook; he flipped to a blank page and set the tip of his pen to the paper, ready to record as much detail as possible.

Rachel glanced at her father, his warm smile encouraging her to answer. "I... nothing really, I was running from a man," the detective nodded for her to continue. "I tripped and fell, which is when I assume my wrist was broken. I was able to crawl into an alley, that's... all I remember, until I woke up in the hospital this morning." Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, "how did you know to come here?"

The young man shook his head in amusement, "well as I said, there are a few things that seem, for the lack of a better word, strange." He closed his notebook and tucked it into the chest pocket of his white shirt, "I was working the late shift last night. At approximately Twelve A.M. there was an unbelievably frantic pounding on the station's main doors. A colleague of mine went to investigate and discovered a man, badly beaten and unconscious on the ground." Rachel felt her stomach muscles tighten as the detective continued, "Beside him was a gun, empty of ammunition. We found residue on his hands that proved that it had been recently fired. But the weird thing wasn't that this man just appeared literally on our doorstep, what caught our attention was the fact that we found your driver's license on his chest. Just balanced there, like someone had gone out of their way to make sure we found it."

Rachel was puzzled; she didn't understand how the ogre that had attacked her could have come to possess her license. It had been in her purse, which she had dropped by her car before running away. She didn't remember him pausing to pick it up before he had started chasing her. She didn't know how the man got from the alley to the police station either, but she assumed it was the same mysterious way that she had ended up at the hospital.

"Anyway," Detective Gage continued, "the guy was severely intoxicated. But when he eventually woke up he confessed that he had followed someone whose description matched that of the photo on your licence. However, when asked how he had sustained his injuries, he swore vehemently that a flying girl had come to your rescue. He said that he shot her, but that her body deflected the bullets on impact." He stared at Rachel, his face completely unreadable and she felt the jagged edges of the bullet cutting into her palm. Everything was silent until suddenly, Detective Gage let out a ferocious laugh, "crazy drunks, eh?"

Rachel laughed with him, though it sounded ridiculously forced to her own ears the police officer didn't seem to pick up on it.

"We went to the street he said that he had seen you on, regrettably we were unable to find your car."

"Oh, I dropped my purse," she mumbled. "Sorry daddy, I panicked."

Eli shook his head, there were unshed tears blurring his vision. "It's okay honey, all that matters is you're home and you're safe."

"Well, if you left your purse at the crime scene, your car could be halfway to anywhere by now. We were going to send officers to the hospital to check if you were there, but you know, busy night fighting crime and all that." He scratched the back of his neck noncommittally.

Rachel thought she heard her father, who had returned from the kitchen with glasses of lemonade on a tray; mumble something about incompetence under his breath. He passed a glass of the cold beverage to his husband, then to his daughter and held one out towards the young detective.

"No thank you, Mr Berry," he said standing up. "Your daughter is safe; we have the perpetrator in custody. I think this crime has officially been solved." He smiled widely at them all, clearly very pleased with himself. "Unless Rachel, did you see... anyone?"

Rachel bit her tongue to prevent the honesty from naturally spilling from her lips. She remembered how the mysterious woman that had saved her went to great lengths to prevent the brunette from seeing her face. How she had lingered in the shadows, not turning to Rachel even when she had called out to her. It was clear that the woman wanted her identity to remain a secret, and Rachel would respect that. "No."

The detective smiled in amusement, "no flying girl then?" Rachel shook her head slowly. "I didn't think so. How preposterous, this is Ohio after all, not Metropolis."

After he'd left, Rachel spent an hour or so convincing her fathers that she truly was okay. She enjoyed their company but she was exhausted, wanting nothing more than to escape to her room and organise her thoughts. Something that the detective had said piqued her interest, the off-handed comment about Lima not being like Metropolis. When she finally found comfort in her own bed, she made a mental note to investigate what he could have meant after school the following day.

The next day.

After assuring her dads that she was well enough to attend school, Rachel called Finn and asked if she could ride with him. He had eagerly said yes and arrived at Rachel's house within ten minutes. When they pulled into McKinley's student parking lot, Rachel gasped at what she saw. She got out of Finn's car and ran towards her own. She couldn't comprehend it being there, perfectly parked in her allotted space. How likely was it that someone had found her abandoned purse on the street, somehow deduced that it belonged to her, and returned her car to a parking spot at the high school she attended? She felt like she was going to pass out.

Finn didn't understand her strong reaction to seeing her own vehicle and had simply ushered her inside of the building whilst rambling about a wrestling match he had watched over the weekend. Not once since arriving at her house had he asked why she needed a ride or why her arm was in a cast.

Once they arrived at her locker, he told her he'd catch up with her later before moving towards his own. She opened the door to retrieve her books, still in a daze over her car's sudden appearance. She felt a strong breeze blow past her, her hair whipping across her face. When she turned back to her open locker her eyebrows raised disbelievingly. Her purse, it hadn't been there a moment ago, she was sure of it. But there it was, sitting on top of a chemistry textbook in the small space.

"What the hell is going on around here?" She asked no one in particular.


	5. Chapter 5

Quinn had been biding her time all day, carefully watching Rachel and trying to gauge when would be best to make her approach. She knew that she couldn't just waltz up to the brunette and start rambling amicably about their day, Rachel would be immediately suspicious of the cheerleader's motives, and rightfully so. Quinn knew that winning Rachel's friendship would take time, and probably a hefty dose of grand public gestures. She also knew that she didn't fully deserve the other girl's trust, but Quinn was sick of suppressing every minute detail that made her Quinn, well... Kara Zor-El. Being Quinn was fine; Quinn had everything that she could possibly want growing up in the small town of Lima. She was popular, she was the head cheerleader in an award winning squad and she had doting friends. Quinn was happy, Kara was not.

It was sometimes confusing having duelling personalities, both of them strong in their own right, her instinct would be to react to something a certain way but she would have to stop and remind herself that she was nothing more than an average, humanly athletic teenager. But in the moments that she was openly honest with herself, Quinn knew that both sides of her wanted the same thing. Kara wanted to fly freely, to map the stars and run so fast that the only thing audible was the sound of her own heart, beating wildly in her chest. But what Kara wanted the most, was Rachel. She knew that she would still have to restrain herself, that it would be putting Rachel at risk to ever find out who the blonde truly was, but that didn't matter. Because Quinn Fabray, the Earth-bound girl also wanted Rachel Berry. She had tried for years to ignore the feelings that she felt for the singer, but only in her presence did Quinn feel like herself, like she was floating. It was okay for Quinn to befriend the girl that she had wanted to be close to for so long, because she was doing it with pure intentions. She just wanted to know her, to be the cause of heartfelt laughter and radiating smiles.

Quinn knew that she was physically attracted to Rachel the first time she saw her, she had been on Earth for no longer than 6 months and was still struggling to comprehend the depth of human emotion. She hadn't completely understood what she was feeling at the time, just that she had the unwavering urge to be around the around the brunette and that her skin, which was impervious to anything harmful, tingled whilst there was an unnatural feeling in her stomach. Living with the Fabrays had taught her many things about humanity; unfortunately she was usually left confused or saddened by the world's narrow-minded views of things. She had soon come to learn that it was mostly unacceptable for two humans of the same gender to engage in a romantic relationship on Earth.

She had quickly deduced that humans were privy to only a microscopic fraction of what they called love. Back on Krypton, people fell in love completely, deeper than any Earthling could ever wish to fathom. Love was limitless on her planet, a carnal attraction of the souls. Gender, physical appearance, it all meant nothing to a Kryptonian. Her race was beyond physical attributes, a Kryptonian held the ability to see into the depths of one's psyche, and more often than not, would find their soulmate based on first impressions alone. Being attracted to Rachel didn't bother her; it was the depth of her emotions that she found unnerving. She was an alien living amongst humans, the Quinn part of her wanted to date Rachel, even though she had been told it was wrong. She wanted to dote on the girl, give her flowers and open car doors for her. But the Kara side of her persona, the dominant alien side, was already irrevocably in love with the brunette. Still, Quinn had enough control not to reveal herself or her feelings to Rachel; she simply wanted to be her friend. For now at least.

Throughout the entire day she had been watching, but the diva was always busy or dazedly staring into space with an adorable crinkle in her brow. Quinn suspected that it had something to do with the mysterious reappearance of her missing car outside of the school. Looking back on it now, Quinn realised that balancing Rachel's compact in one hand and her discarded purse in the other whilst flying both items across town probably wasn't the smartest idea she'd ever had. It was the perfect example of the alien instinct that she so often had to fight. But she couldn't stand to see Rachel unhappy, so after disposing of the cretin that had attacked her by leaving him on the doorstep of the police station, along with Rachel's drivers license so that he could be punished for what he had done, she had returned to the darkened street and used her abilities in order to do whatever she could to bring a little joy to Rachel after what she had gone through. The thought of being seen hadn't even crossed her mind.

Quinn finally found the perfect opportunity to talk to Rachel during the afternoon's glee club meeting. She was sitting on a stool between Santana and Mike, waiting for Mr Schuester to begin the rehearsal of their latest song. She was alerted to Rachel's presence by a sudden outburst of expletives, she looked around the room but the shorter girl was nowhere in sight. She focused hard on the adjacent wall until it faded away to reveal Rachel rummaging through her locker hurriedly. Quinn could hear her muttering under her breath about sheet music, and she couldn't help but chuckle at the girl's exuberance.

"...stupid Neanderthal, preying on young ingénues..."

Santana nudged her arm and gave her a questioning glance; Quinn just lowered her head and continued laughing.

"...mentally unprepared after such an ordeal..."

Quinn listened on as the rustling got louder and Rachel's impatience caused her voice to become breathy, she was slightly distracted when her best friend waved a hand in front of her face. "Seriously, what the hell is so funny?"

Quinn turned to face Santana, readying an answer when she heard Rachel berating herself for both being late to glee, and for leaving her necessary sheet music at home. "Nothing, Lopez. I've gotta use the bathroom." She gracefully slid off of her stool and out of the room.

Rachel was still stuffing the contents of her locker away when Quinn rounded the corner. She tried to remain calm as the distance between them lessened. "What's up, Berry?" She asked casually, hiding her bright smile behind a smirk.

"It seems that due to a possible belated concussion, which was brought on by a somewhat chaotic brawl with a violent bandit last night, I forgot my-"she slammed the door to her locker, "oh it's you. What are you doing here? You should know that tardiness reflects badly upon one's self. You never know when a potential employer-"

Quinn rolled her eyes and answered nonchalantly, "I'm going to the bathroom. I'll see you in glee." Rachel nodded and Quinn continued on her way down the empty hallway. She threw a glance over her shoulder to make sure that Rachel's back was still turned and bypassed the door to the girl's restroom. Once outside of the school, she checked that no one was around and easily transitioned from zero to two miles per second in the blink of an eye. She cut across the football field, completely unaware in her haste that Jacob Ben Israel, the school pervert, was hiding beneath the bleachers taking photos of a few unfortunate Cheerios that Coach Sylvester had engaging in extra practices.

She came to a standstill in the yard behind Rachel's house. Thankfully, Rachel had left her bedroom window slightly open so it was easy for Quinn to silently enter after levitating until she was in reach. She was perfectly stealthy, her footsteps not making a sound when crossing the room and snatching up the sheet music from Rachel's desk. However, on her return to the window she noticed that Rachel's dresser drawer was open, displaying an array of the girl's underwear. For what was possibly the first time in Quinn's life, she lost her natural grace and tripped over her own feet. She stumbled clumsily and collapsed face first onto Rachel's bed. She was overwhelmed by the scent of the girl surrounding her, her hands subconsciously fisting into the comforter whilst she nuzzled her nose further into the softness. She almost missed the sound of Rachel's father calling up the stairs.

"Rachel, is that you?" He yelled as he climbed the stairs. "What are you doing home already, honey?" Joshua knocked once before opening the door to his daughter's room. He quizzically raised an eyebrow in the direction of the curtains, his eyes widening as he witnessed the curtains settling down after their hemline finished flapping against the ceiling. He went to pull the window shut, but was left confused when he discovered that it was already fully closed. "Eli!" He screamed, his arms flailing as he ran from the room, "Poltergeist!"

When Quinn arrived back at McKinley, she was dismayed to find that she had accidentally clutched one of the many plush toys from Rachel's bed, a tiny white lamb, and was still holding on to it. She would have to return it to the girl's room at a later date because she couldn't risk another close call with Rachel's dads. In reality, it had been no more than three minutes since she left the choir room; she stopped by her locker to stash the plushie and walked back to rehearsal at a regular pace.

Santana resumed eyeing her suspiciously when she re-entered the room, but Quinn ignored her and approached the brunette who was sulking at the piano, distractedly playing a piece that correctly expressed her melancholia. The blonde held the small stack of papers behind her back until she reached Rachel; she tapped the girl on the shoulder and smiled fully when their eyes met.

"I'm glad to see that you have finally returned, seriously Quinn, tardiness-"

Quinn just smiled wider, bringing the papers into Rachel's line of sight, "I found your sheet music."

Rachel quickly rose to her feet; her own smile causing Quinn's to grow impossibly brighter. But suddenly the brunette's brow furrowed, she placed both hands on her hips and asked Quinn, "Where did you find it?"

Quinn realised then that she really should think before acting when it came to Rachel, "uh," she mumbled, "in the bathroom." The inflection in her tone made the statement sound more like a question and she could almost hear the wheels of disbelief turning in the brunette's head.

"I was almost certain that I left these at home," Rachel rambled. "I can even see in my mind's eye exactly in which spot I had placed them. In the bathroom you say? Which bathroom? I don't know why I would take my beloved, annotated and thus irreplaceable sheet music with me to the restroom, that seems awfully unhygienic, think of all the bacteria I could-"

"Rachel," Quinn said. She could see that she was about to lose the girl's attention. She placed both of her palms on the girl's shoulders, trying not to lose herself in the warmth radiating off of the brunette's skin. "I found them in a stall in the bathroom, ground floor, outside of the chem lab. Perhaps you dropped them somewhere and somebody found them and then they were the ones to take them into the bathroom. Who knows, all that matters is that they have been returned to you. By me." Quinn just needed to get Rachel away from this topic before the holes in her story were uncovered. Fortunately, Rachel had only seemed to hear the beginning of Quinn's speech.

"You called me Rachel," her brown eyes flashed in recognition. "That was the first time you've ever addressed me by my actual name." She looked at Quinn in wonder before her face hardened, "I appreciate you returning my music to me, Quinn. Now, what do you want?"

Quinn had so many answers for such a loaded question. Most of them far too inappropriate to reveal during their first legitimate conversation. She could say that she wanted to protect Rachel, that she wanted to kiss her, that she wanted to fly to the Arctic, cradling Rachel in her arms to the Fortress Of Solitude where she would reveal every secret she had before they made love on a faux bear skin rug that she had thoughtfully brought for the cold. Instead, she smiled once more and answered honestly, "I want us to start over. Have dinner with me."


End file.
